"Happy Friday!" & "The Monday Blues"
Sometimes I don't like it when people give me a big-smiled greeting at the end of the work week and say, "Happy Friday!"
Don't get me wrong. Friday's are nice and all. Who doesn't like making it to the end of a long work week? Weekends are the best, right!? There's a more relaxed schedule and extra time to sleep in or be with friends and family!
However, if you're like me, the more excited you get about the arrival of a Friday, the more depressed you get when Monday comes around (or even Sunday evening).
What do you feel on Sunday evenings or Monday mornings?
My thoughts go something like this:
- "Ugh. This weekend went by too fast."
- "Ugh. Only a couple more hours until bed and then I have to wake and go back to school! Ugh. Ugh."
- "There's nothing in me that wants to go back to work."
- "What's the point? Work. Work. More work. Then comes a weekend that's too short...and then back to work again."
People have lots of things they use to TRY TO CURE their "Monday Blues." However, if what makes you happy is "the weekend" or "freedom from work" or "being able to relax," I'm sorry to say there's no real cure. Whenever Monday comes around...IT'S GONNA SUCK!
But I've found a cure.
The cure for me is to find something that 1) can make me happier than anything else AND 2) is available to me both on Monday and on Friday (and on every other day of the week and around the clock).
A lot of other people have found this cure too.
- "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation." (Paul of Tarsus)
- "I have found the answer is to love you and be loved by you alone." (Shane & Shane)
- "I have found a desire within myself that no experience in this world can satisfy; the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (C.S. Lewis)
- "[God] is the end of our quest for satisfaction." (John Piper)
- "Your love is better than life." (David, King of ancient Israel)
Jesus. He is alive and he's the answer.
Some people think Jesus is just for Sunday mornings or Jesus is just a ticket out of hell and into heaven. That's wrong though. Jesus is so much more. He's the cure for everything including the Monday Blues. We can have him. He will give himself to us. He will give himself to us and be our satisfaction when we're depressed by our first thoughts on Monday. He will offer himself and heal us when our heads are on the pillow late at night and all our thoughts tend towards despair.
It's true. He is THAT relevant. He is THAT satisfying.
Reflection:
What are some thoughts that you have on Sunday evenings or Monday mornings?
What are some of the things that you hope will make you happy enough (or alive enough) to make it through the beginning of the week?
God's Word:
Psalm 107:4-9
4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.
5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.
6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.
8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.
Songs:
Consider taking the time to listen to some of these songs that have to do with the theme of Jesus is the end of our quest for satisfaction.
Pray:
God, if other people have found that you are the secret...that you are the cure for even the Monday Blues...let me discover the secret as well. If you will let me have you, I want to have you. Will you please show me how much you satisfy me and how much you'll heal me?